Found my old Raleigh racer in Dads Garage

hmm been to Halfords and they didn't seem to have a great deal in there.

Been looking around their website though and they have some freewheels but they all seem to be for mountain bikes (is this correct? does it matter?).
Secondly , my chain did fall off a few times prior to the snappage could this be because of the chain/freewheel or could it be something else?

I would look at the front derailleur adjustment screws, one of them is letting it move too far over and pushing the chain off.

There's no difference between MTB/Road freewheels, what you want to look at is the range of teeth, i.e 14-28 would be a 14 tooth small cog and 28 tooth big cog.

They sometimes get called MTB parts because freewheels these days are only found on the rubbish halfords sells with double suspension for <£100.

Team Cadet was a 14-26 freewheel so a 6 speed one that goes 14-28 would be fine. If it doesn't go to the last cog its a simple matter of loosening the adjuster screw until it does.

EDIT: Your freewheel is a Mallard one, if it's original. Being about twenty quid to buy the tool on ebay you might as well ask the bike shop to take it off.

Here's a new freewheel that'll do you: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/SHIMANO-6-SPE ... 1c3cfdeecc

Yeah definitely the original freewheel, I will get hold of the new freewheel and get the LBS to remove and put the new one on.

Two more things though, what length chain should i get (are there any particular ones i should get?) and also the front derallieur, i think that it needs replacing because its pretty much seized up and adjustment is very difficult, which one would be recommended? There seems to be quite a few types (dual pull?)

Yikes

Chain length is something you adjust yourself... http://sheldonbrown.com/derailer-adjustment.html#chain

Sheldon's site is the old bike bible.

Your front derailleur depends on the frame mounting, the size difference between the two chainrings, and if it's indexed or not. As a non indexed bike with a 52/42 chainset there's loads of choice out there.

Though maybe it just needs taking apart, cleaning and putting back together.

Back to this one again

Have the freewheel on the bike now (via LBS) and have a chain ready to go on the bike but have a question.

Everything i have read says to put the chain on using the largest cog, This would mean that i would be putting it on the largest cog of my now 6 speed freewheel.

This i understand but is it correct? The distance between the largest and the second largest is quite a log on this freewheel and secondly, would i be able to use all 6 speeds where before I could only use 5?

Confused.com

Chains are dead easy, put it round the largest cog, largest on the front, and make it look like this:



Then put it through the derailleur and connect.

Should shift through all 1 to 6 fine, if not check the limit screws.

Just had a very quick scan through the thread & I don't know if anyone has mentioned this, but in your photos of the bike the forks look like they are bent to me.

Yeah someone mentioned this before, don't know if it just looks that way on the photos but they are not

Forks look bent to me too, sadly. Although if has been to the local bike shop and they are any good they would have picked that up so must be ok.

They are not bent however even when i look at the photo they look bent, I think that the reason is that the tyres are totally flat and the wheels were somewhat buckled, that paired with the fact that its not on a flat surface and at weird angle they certainly look well off, but they aren't